The Internationalisation of New Zealand Forestry Companies and the Social Reappraisal of New Zealand's Exotic Forest Resource

Industrial geographers are beginning to address country-specific changes in the wider setting of restructuring in the world economy. Developments in the New Zealand forestry sector are conceptualised as historically specific responses to structural processes, operating at global, national, and local scales. In this paper the changing state—economy relations associated with afforestation of exotic softwoods in New Zealand are examined, and forest utilisation issues are outlined. The emerging possibilities for the coordination of forestry production in New Zealand are also identified. Evidence is presented on the nature and degree of integration of ‘New Zealand’ private and state capital into the wood-fibre markets of the Pacific Rim. It is concluded that unprecedented restructuring in the 1980s by organisations, both private and public, engaged in New Zealand's forestry production has made the realisation of forest assets in New Zealand difficult, with significant implications for owners of forests and for labour dependent on various facets of exotic forestry.